RDA, linked data, and development Gordon Dunsire Presented to FOBID Studiedag "Standaardisatie: keurslijf of kans?", Den Haag, The Netherlands, September 28, 2016

RDA data “RDA is a package of data elements, guidelines, and instructions for creating library and cultural heritage resource metadata that are well-formed according to international models for user-focussed linked data applications.” RDA Toolkit provides the user-focussed elements, guidelines, and instructions. RDA Registry provides the infrastructure for well-formed, linked, RDA data applications. Open Metadata Registry (OMR) provides linked data representation of RDA elements. The RDA data ecosystem is summed up in this sentence introducing the RDA Board’s announcement of RDA’s strategic directions. The RDA package is delivered by an infrastructure of two interacting services. The human-facing components, including the guidelines and instructions, are the Toolkit. The data-facing components are contained in the Registry. Applying the data capture and storage techniques in RDA Toolkit to the data architecture in the RDA Registry produces well-formed data for RDA applications.

Development contexts (2-3 years) Governance transition from Anglo-American to international communities FRBR Library Reference Model and other international standards (IFLA, ISSN, …) Toolkit review and re-organization

FRBR-LRM and RDA LRM is “a high-level conceptual model … intended as a guide or basis on which to elaborate cataloguing rules” RDA guidance, instructions, elements “operates at a greater level of generality than FRBRoo, which seeks to be comparable in terms of generality with CIDOC CRM” RDA cultural heritage communities “this model is developed very much with semantic web technologies in mind” RDA linked data communities

FRBR-LRM and RDA entities RDA refines LRM relationships as element sub-types (RDF sub-properties) FRBR-LRM and RDA entities Any Thing: Covers all other types of thing Res has appellation Nomen is created by W Agent E Place M is type of I Collective agent is associated with is modified by Timespan P F C

Semantic refinement Coarse/General Res1 Res2 Fine/Specific Res1 Res2 is associated with Res2 has creator has artist Fine/Specific Res1 is associated with Res2 is derivative (E) is adapted as (E) is adapted as graphic novel (E)

Translations and multilingual RDA The RDA Translations policy requires translations of RDA Reference: Element set and value vocabulary labels, definitions, and scope notes Linked data version of RDA Reference is available from the OMR, RDA Registry, and GitHub (open license allows commercial use)

Semantic Web

Global data Swedish work German translation French cataloguer

Relationship data RDA instructions accommodate related entities identified by: * Unstructured description * Structured description (aggregate of attribute values) * Access point (structured description) or Identifier * URI (identifier for global linked data) RDA "4-fold path": Data stored in relationship object property (URI) or datatype property with plain literal (unstructured) or typed literal with syntax encoding scheme (structured)

Local vocabularies Translations! Local terms in RDA vocabularies: Extensions and refinements (narrower/broader, equivalent) Ex: Synonyms, localized terms Local vocabularies with similar semantics: Substitutions in local Application Profile Ex: Gender Semantic coherency maintained between OWL object and datatype properties and RDFS properties

RDA RDF property family Domain Property Range  Unconstrained  Canonical RDA (Toolkit) Object property Thing Datatype property String subPropertyOf Unconstrained properties generalize RDA for non-FRBR/LRM models

Who, when, how? The challenges for linked data Building the global from the local is essential But the global infrastructure needs coordination Who, when, how? Triples store(s) for data Maps between element sets Maps between value vocabularies Data triple maintenance services Linked data catalogues

Thank you! rscchair@rdatoolkit.org RSC website RDA Toolkit http://www.rda-rsc.org/ RDA Toolkit http://www.rdatoolkit.org/ RDA Registry http://www.rdaregistry.info/ RDA data, Jane-athons, etc. http://www.rballs.info/